


The Primrose Path

by Hamiltonian



Category: Homestuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-21
Updated: 2012-06-21
Packaged: 2017-11-08 06:19:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/440090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hamiltonian/pseuds/Hamiltonian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose Lalonde appears to know everything. Dave isn't sure that he can keep working with her after she drops another bombshell on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Primrose Path

Dave's alliance with Rose Lalonde was an uneasy one at best. There was something incredibly off-putting about the author that he couldn't quite pin down, a certain quality of hers that simultaneously frustrated and unsettled him. Unfortunately in the world there were few people both cognizant of the oncoming conquest and capable enough to do something about it, leaving him with no option but to put aside his ruffled feelings and work with her.

That didn't mean he had to like it, however. The reluctant feeling (which she had blithely pointed out bordered on petulance, much to his dismay) only intensified whenever he was made to visit her house. The building crystallized all the vague peculiarities he imagined Rose possessed in that same unnameable manner; there was just something about the way she'd decorated it that made the house feel more like a showroom than a home, as if it were vacant and merely waiting for its true occupant to come along.

Most of the time he shoved these strange thoughts to the dusty storeroom of his mind in order to focus on actually getting shit done. Today was no different, particularly as his errand list had included further preparations for the impending arrival of the child he was to raise. Having a child thrust upon him had originally raised Dave's hackles, both at the idea that he was parenthood material and that he would be just fine with the responsibility without even being asked. As time wore on the idea began to grow on him, to the point where he was actually looking forward to the new addition in his own way.

"Starting to think that we might have to add Babies R Us to the list of shit the batterwitch has got her soggy claws into. I swear to god those chumps just milked me for all I'm worth like some kind of cash cow beached in the newborn section."

His metaphors are twisted again but he doesn't particularly mind, too busy dropping several large bags unceremoniously onto Rose's floor. If she wanted him here directly then she'd have to deal with the fact that he was a man on a shopping mission in the meantime.

His gracious host doesn't look up from the book in her lap, although he'd like to imagine the running commentary at least earned a raised eyebrow. It was so difficult to get Rose to react to anything that sometimes he wondered if she hadn't scooped out her emotions as a child and buried them on some remote island to increase efficiency.

Finally he's graced with a reply, although the weighty pause in between likely meant she was seriously considering just ignoring the whole matter.

"Is that so? I hope you kept the receipts."

"Receipts? Damn Lalonde, I thought you knew me better than that by now. What's a bigshot Hollywood man need to keep his receipts for? I've got so much money that I could buy the entire fucking store and not feel a single pinch from wasteful spending."

Dave chuckled, crossing the distance between them to casually plop into a seat next to Rose. His feet immediately made themselves comfortable on the table as he pushed back in the chair, continuing to speak in order to fill the uncomfortable silence his companion's lack of a response created. These one-sided conversations happened more than he'd ever care to admit.

"But whatever, let them cry over the bills that touched the illustrious Dave Strider's hands for as long as they want. I'm too busy with actually important shit, like deciding just how ironic I want to name this kid. There's some pretty damn steep competition to compete when it comes to celebrity baby names, I'm going to have to go all out to make my ma-"

"He's not coming."

The reply was as sharp as the sound Dave's chair legs made when they hit the tiled floor. Rose still hadn't looked up from her wretched book, but her tone made it seem as if she were annoyed by the entire topic of discussion and had finally decided to put an end to it. He stared at her impassively for a moment as the silence stretched on and deepened the impact of those three little words.

He finally managed to get something out, tone ice cold despite the relative weakness of the actual retort. "Come again?"

"You're waiting in vain. The child isn't coming."

"The fuck are you talking about? I know you're probably the only person on the planet less qualified to be raising a kid than I am, but it's kind of late to be getting cold feet. The meteors are due in a month or two, right?"

The questioning tone crept into Dave's voice without his permission, causing him to internally groan. It was always this way when arguing with Rose, an unconscious deference to her knowledge despite his desire to prove it wrong. It was even more infuriating now when he was absolutely certain that she'd finally taken a running leap off the deep end and was babbling incoherently.

Rose finally stood, oblivious to his mental disgruntlement, making her way to stand by a window and watch the busy street below. Despite the nuclear bomb she'd just dropped her face was stoic and faintly disinterested as always, more preoccupied with the pizza delivery boy across the street than the confrontation in her own home.

"The meteors will begin their journey in a month, but the destination isn't here. It never was."

"Then why the hell did you string me along this whole time?" He was getting visibly riled, but at the moment he didn't care.

"If you'll recall I never stated that either of us would be charged with adoptive parenthood in our lifetime. I merely stated that there would be a set of children we had to make preparations for."

She turned then, hands ramrod straight at her side and expression regally disdainful. If this had been any moment other than now Dave wasn't sure he'd have been able to resist the urge to fall to his knees in knightly deference to his sovereign, a bizarre desire that had floated through his head more than once in his life with no real origin. Fortunately for him her next icy words obliterated that train of thought entirely.

"You jumped to conclusion before I could clarify and never gave me a chance to rectify the misconception. The entire future you've built up for yourself is nothing more than a world of illusions and you have no one to blame but yourself for it."

In a flash Dave was on his feet and toe to toe with Rose, moving with that unnatural speed so familiar to him. She didn't move back at his sudden proximity, didn't even flinch. The continued stoicism of the woman who had done more to overturn every aspect of his life than Sea Hitler herself only fed into the burning desire to wrap his hands around her china doll neck and _squeeze._

"Who the hell are you," he choked out, eyes dark even with the mask of cheap sunglasses between them, "to tell me this shit anyway? How do you know?"

And then, to Dave's complete disbelief, Rose smiled for the first time in their acquaintanceship. The grin is full of such inner pain that he feels it hit him like a punch to the gut. In a way he almost wished that she _had_ just given him an uppercut and walked away; that much despair wasn't meant to be in anyone's eyes.

"You don't want to know."

Maybe he didn't. That expression had gone far beyond the levels of discomfort he thought Rose Lalonde was capable of bringing down upon him. But even if that was true, some defiant part of him refused to accept this alteration in his reality. Not after all the work he'd done.

He turned on his heel, at the door in the blink of an eye with the bags of freshly purchased items forgotten in the obscurity of the emotional storm clouds pounding at his head. Dave paused just once in the doorway in order to turn back and stare at his once more impassive partner in crime.

"Maybe you've given up, but I'm just a little less flaky. You can find another asshole stupid enough to play revolutionaries with you, I've got a spacekid to raise."

"You'll be back."

The words echoed in his head longer after he'd stormed out of that European rave complex and back to the more familiar setting of his apartment. The way she'd stated her prophecy as fact irked him beyond measure, made him all the more determined to finally prove her wrong and never set eyes on that icy broad again.

 

 

A month passed, filled with casual peeks out the window for wanton destruction in the downtown area and surfing NASA's website for any news of a stray meteor headed for the atmosphere. Then two months passed, the frequency of his stargazing creeping up to something almost anxious. By the time the third month had rolled around he wasn't even trying to disguise the panic bubbling up inside of him. It had to be a mistake, right? A miscalculation of some weird and complicated lightspeed spacerock travel formula duping him into believing that the baby was late.

The meteor never came.

It took him another month to build up the courage to return to the eerie model house of Lalonde, even after he'd accepted that there was going to be no child in his life. Out loud he would assert that it was nothing more than nursing a bruised ego, but when he was stupid enough to be honest with himself the chill that ran down his spine at Rose's eerie accuracy was undeniable.

Unfortunately the fate of the universe was worth more than his ability to keep the hairs on the back of his neck from raising thanks to a close proximity with a certain author, a fact that Dave was painfully aware of. It was circulating his head like a warped Tibetan mantra as he jiggled her door handle and found (of course) that it was unlocked.

The first thing he saw upon entry was Rose seated at that same damnable table as last time. Unlike the previous encounter, however, her companion is a tea set rather than a book detailing the long and boring history of a mad scholar. The hideous bronze octopus which served as her teapot was difficult to ignore, but somehow Dave managed to find something even more distracting in the array.

Rose had already poured out two steaming cups of tea and furnished them with the appropriate fixings preferred by their intended recipients. From the way her hands fluttered back into place on her lap it was evident that she'd done so immediately prior to her houseguest's silent entrance.

It was enough to tip Dave over the edge despite himself - he threw back his head and laughed, really _laughed._

"Fuck." he managed to get out, staggering over to drop into the chair that had been helpfully pulled out prior to his arrival. Rose merely smiled up at him, tranquil in what he could only imagine was the muted euphoria of being right.

As he pulled the premade cup over to him, Dave couldn't help but think that maybe he was finally ready to admit that Rose Lalonde really did know everything.


End file.
